Given the critical role of Fc gamma receptors (FcγR) as primary targets for autoantibody-mediated effects an important issue is how the FcγR pathway is affected in autoimmune disorders. Here we investigated the FcγR function in monocytes from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients in relation to immunoglobulin levels and disease activity. Peripheral ...

NADPH-oxidases (NOX) catalyze the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which play a role in the development of neurological diseases, particularly those generated by the phagocytic isoform NOX2. Increased ROS has been observed in the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) SOD1 transgenic mouse, and in this preclinical model the inactivation of ...

Aim. Previous studies support the concept that obesity is a common comorbid condition in patients with epilepsy (PWE). In this study, we present the body mass index (BMI) and data from a survey to assess physical activity in a sample of PWE from an epilepsy clinic. Methods. Between June of ...

Mucosal healing is an important predictor of disease-related outcome in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients, including those in clinical remission. However, colonoscopy is an invasive procedure and many patients decline repeated endoscopic examinations. We aimed to assess whether noninvasive biomarkers could accurately detect endoscopic mucosal inflammatory activity in ...

Red blood cell distribution width (RDW) has been shown to be related to both anemia and inflammation in various diseases. However, the role of RDW in patients with Takayasu arteritis (TA) is unknown. Therefore, we investigated the association of RDW with anemia, inflammation, and disease activity in TA. RDW was ...

We prospectively studied the incidence and clinical course of hypertriglyceridemia and hypercholesterolemia during very prolonged use of asparaginase or in relation to asparaginase activity levels in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Also, incidence of pancreatitis, thrombosis, hyperammonemia and central neurotoxicity and their association with asparaginase activity levels were evaluated. 89 ...

Tissue factor (TF) is the main in-vivo initiator of blood coagulation. Microparticles (MPs) are small procoagulant membrane vesicles. Elevated TF-bearing MPs have been found in different prothrombotic conditions and MP-associated TF activity may contribute to the pathogenesis of unprovoked deep vein thrombosis (DVT). To determine MP-TF activity levels at diagnosis ...

Connolly Mark M Department of Neurosurgery, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, - - 2014

The objective of this study is to characterize the relationship between ICP and EEG METHODS: Simultaneous ICP and EEG data were obtained from burst-suppressed patients and segmented by EEG bursts. Segments were categorized as increasing/decreasing and peak/valley to investigate relationship between ICP changes and EEG burst duration. A generalized ICP ...

The incidence of eosinophilic esophagitis has increased in the past several years, yet our understanding of pathogenesis remains limited. To test the hypothesis that microRNAs are altered in children with eosinophilic esophagitis, microRNAs were profiled in esophageal mucosa biopsies obtained from patients with active disease (n=5) and healthy control subjects ...

Fibrosis is a predominant feature of IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD). B-cell depletion induces a prompt clinical and immunological response in patients with IgG4-RD, but the effects of this intervention on fibrosis in IgG4-RD are unknown. We used the enhanced liver fibrosis (ELF) score to address the impact of rituximab on fibroblast ...

However, there are some informations on the salivary glands involvement in systemic sclerosis, and there is a lack of any data about salivary glands function depending on systemic sclerosis subsets. The unstimulated and stimulated salivary flow, the activity of peroxidase, the total amount of lactoferrin, lysozyme and sIgA were determined ...

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory condition with increased all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. Accumulating evidence indicates that the immune and autonomic nervous systems (ANS) are major contributors to the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease. We performed the first systematic literature review to determine the prevalence and nature of ANS dysfunction ...

Hematological malignancies can change the levels of plasma molecules involved in coagulation and fibrinolysis such as fibrinopeptide A, fibrinogen, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) and D-dimer, markers of endothelial cell integrity (soluble E-selectin, van Willebrand factor and soluble thromboembolism) and of platelet function (beta-thromboglobulin). The aim of this study was to ...

Pulmonary impairment in patients suffering ulcerative colitis (UC) has been suggested by several investigators using standard pulmonary function tests (PFTs). This changes in pulmonary function associated with minimal respiratory symptoms have been documented, especially in patients with active disease. The aim of this prospective study was to determine airway resistance ...

This study aimed to determine if the activity of the environmentally influenced cytochrome P450 enzyme CYP1A2, alone or in combination with CYP2D6*4 genotype, discriminates subgroups of oral lichen planus (OLP) according to lifestyle factors and clinical manifestations. A total of 111 patients with OLP were categorized according to normal, low, ...

The role of obesity in clinical curse of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is not clear. We investigated the association of obesity and adiposity with disease activity and clinical response to combination therapy in RA patients. Active RA patients with the disease activity score using 28 joint counts (DAS28) > 2.6 were ...

Functional dissociation between brain processes is widely hypothesized to account for aberrations of thought and emotions in schizophrenic patients. The typically small groups of analyzed schizophrenic patients yielded different neurophysiological findings, probably because small patient groups are likely to comprise different schizophrenia subtypes. We analyzed multichannel eyes-closed resting EEG from ...

To evaluate levels of homocysteine, asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA), and nitric oxide (NO), as well as activity of endothelial NO synthase (eNOS), in patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The levels of homocysteine, ADMA, and NO and activity of eNOS in patients who were diagnosed with wet AMD by fundus fluorescein ...

Pathological gambling (PG) is a chronic mental disorder characterized by a difficulty restraining gambling behavior despite negative consequences. Although brain abnormalities in patients with substance use disorders are caused by repetitive drug use and recover partly with drug abstinence, the relationship between brain activity and duration of illness or abstinence ...

Background Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) is a class III histone deacetylase that may play a critical role in several biological functions, including lifespan, stress, and inflammation. Our main objective was to evaluate SIRT1 activity in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in patients with osteoporosis and to analyze the relationship between the ...

Serum adenosine deaminase (ADA) has been previously proposed to predict disease activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The aim of this study was to investigate the level of serum ADA, and the relationship between ADA and disease activity markers, in a group of patients with RA. A hundred and ...

Oxidative stress and inflammatory mediators, such as IL-6, play an important role in the pathophysiology of acute pancreatitis. The study was aimed to assess the degree of the pro/antioxidative imbalance and estimate which antioxidant plays a role in the maintenance of pro/antioxidative balance during acute pancreatitis. The study was investigated ...

Although motivational disturbances are common in schizophrenia, their neurophysiological and psychological basis is poorly understood. This electroencephalography (EEG) study examined the well-established motivational direction model of asymmetric frontal brain activity in schizophrenia. According to this model, relative left frontal activity in the resting EEG reflects enhanced approach motivation tendencies, whereas ...

Background Bamboo joint-like appearance is a common yet easy-to-miss endoscopic finding in the stomach of patients with Crohn's disease (CD). Bamboo joint-like appearance (BJA) is characterized by swollen longitudinal folds transversed by erosive fissures or linear furrows. However, whether BJA is observed during the remission stage of CD and during ...

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative illness often characterized by asymmetrical symptoms. However, the reason for this asymmetry and the cerebral correlates underlying symptom asymmetry are still not well understood. Furthermore, the effects of levodopa on the cerebral correlates of disease asymmetry have not been investigated. In this study, right-handed ...

Growing evidence suggests that vitamin D plays a key role in the pathogenesis and progression of autoimmune diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Recent studies have found an association between lower serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels and higher SLE activity. We studied the relationship between 25(OH)D levels and Systemic Lupus ...

Matrix metalloproteinases and their tissue inhibitors play a key role in the pathogenesis of adult-onset multiple sclerosis, and were suggested as biomarkers of response to interferon-β, an established treatment in multiple sclerosis. However, data regarding pediatric population are scarce. We determined serum levels of matrix metalloproteinase-7, matrix metalloproteinase-9, and tissue ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) plays an important role in the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Although dual RAAS inhibition results in worse renal outcomes than monotherapy in high risk type 2 diabetes patients, the effect of dual RAAS inhibition in patients with non-DM CKD is unclear. The ...

OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether methotrexate or tumour necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi) affect osteophyte formation in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA). METHODS: 41 patients with PsA were examined for the presence of osteophytes and erosions at the metacarpophalangeal joints by high-resolution micro-CT imaging. The size of each individual lesion was quantified ...

No studies of the clinical symptoms before starting therapy or of the effectiveness of neuraminidase inhibitors (NAIs) have been carried out of the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 seasons that compare A(H1N1)pdm09 or the three circulating types of influenza virus. The clinical symptoms and duration of fever (body temperature ≥37·5°C) after the ...

Despite acid secretion being normal in the majority of patients with gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) or Barrett's esophagus, acid inhibition represents the mainstay of treatment for both these conditions, with the aim of reducing the aggressive nature of the refluxate toward the esophageal mucosa. Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) represent, therefore, ...

Background: Matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) and its inhibitor tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1) are involved in the pathogenesis of airway inflammation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, no study so far has addressed their value as noninvasive biomarkers of airways inflammation. Objective: To evaluate MMP-9 and TIMP-1 concentrations ...

Edoxaban (the former DU176b) an orally available direct factor Xa inhibitor has been engineered from DX-9065a, which was one of the first parenteral Xa inhibitors. Edoxaban has a time to peak plasma concentrations of 1-2 hours and a half-life of approximately 10 hours after multiple doses. Edoxaban is the third ...

The prevalence of non-hereditary angioedema was investigated in a general population sample (n = 7,931) and in a sample of Danish patients (n = 7,433) tested for deficiency of functional complement C1 esterase inhibitor protein (functional C1 INH). The general population sample (44% response rate) reported a lifetime prevalence of 7.4% for angioedema. In ...

MK-0457, an Aurora kinase and BCR-ABL inhibitor, was studied on a Phase I/II study in 77 patients with refractory hematologic malignancies. The average number of cycles per patient was 3 (range 1-21). Maximum tolerated doses for a 5-day short infusion and continuous infusion regimens were 40 mg/m(2)/h and 144 mg/m(2)/h, ...

Choices of antidiabetic agents for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) are limited. Available data suggest that the use of dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors may be safe in patients at various stages of renal insufficiency. However, except for linagliptin, dosage adjustment is necessary. The ...

To investigate the effects of glucagonlike peptidase-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists and dipeptidyl-peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors on serum amylase and serum lipase levels in patients with type 2 diabetes. In 90 patients with type 2 diabetes, treatment was initiated with a GLP-1 agonist or a DPP-4 inhibitor. A comparison group consisted of ...

OBJECTIVES: This observational study was requested by French health authorities to determine the impact of lopinavir/ritonavir (Kaletra(®)) on antiretroviral resistance in clinical practice. Virological failures of lopinavir/ritonavir and their effects on the resistance to protease inhibitors and reverse transcriptase inhibitors were evaluated in protease inhibitor-experienced patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Virological ...

Treatment modalities for gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) mirror the pathophysiology of the disease. Since acid plays a key role in GORD-associated mucosal lesions, proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are the dominant GORD treatment, being the most potent inhibitors of acid secretion available. However, the clinical effectiveness of PPIs varies with the ...

Monitoring factor replacement treatment and observing concordance with clinical haemostasis is crucial in vital haemorrhages and major surgeries in haemophilic patients. We aimed to investigate the value of the thrombin generation assay (TGA) and thromboelastography (TEG) for monitoring haemostasis in haemophilic patients during factor replacement treatment. The study group consisted ...

Development of inhibitors to factor VIII, a serious complication of replacement therapy in haemophilia A patients, leads to increased bleeding, morbidity and mortality. There is no data on the risk factors for inhibitor development in Indian patients with severe haemophilia A. Our aim was to study the role of immune ...

Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is a safe alternative to esophagectomy for patients with dysplastic Barrett's esophagus (BE). Although some studies have indicated that RFA is effective at eradicating dysplasia, most have found that RFA is not as effective in eradicating intestinal metaplasia. We investigated whether uncontrolled reflux is associated with persistent ...